Archive for the "Practicing" Category
“Please Stop Telling Me I’m Talented”
What is Talent? If you are skilled in one area or another you’ve probably had people tell you you’re so talented! This idea certainly gets thrown about in the world of music frequently, but I believe it is often given more credit than it is due. By definition, talent is the natural aptitude or […]
Why a student may lose their love for music…
I recently came across this post that outlines a parent’s regret at enrolling their son in violin lessons. After seeing an innate love for music and interest in playing the violin they began lessons. After several years this student became disinterested in music and didn’t even want to play around with the instrument anymore. The mother says: […]
Is Your Teaching Business Successful?
I recently ran across this blog post on Facebook: Running a Successful Teaching Business Means Not Losing Students Go read the article if you want, it’s not long. If you don’t want to read it, it basically talks about how to organize your lessons so that you can keep up with what each student is doing […]
Relating Finger Placement to the Notes on The Staff
Many students encounter difficulty with music reading, and knowing where to find the notes they see on the staff on their instrument. While this is a common problem, I believe it’s one that can be easily addressed! Let me first list some ways that I believe do not help address this problem (and can actually contribute to […]
Bowing Smoothly at Every Level
Bowing smoothly and evenly is a skill students at all levels must conquer. Obviously this skill needs to be taught to beginning students, but I have also encountered intermediate and advanced students that lack the foundational knowledge of correct bow usage. I believe that tone production, specifically that of a smooth bow, is often what […]
The “Hard” Teacher – How High Standards Make Music Fun!
I would describe myself as a “hard” teacher – meaning that I have high standards and expect my students to meet them. That doesn’t mean that I push students to do more than they are capable of, or that I expect music to be the only activity in my students’ lives. However, it does mean […]
The Value of Teaching Open String Songs
The Beginning Violinist: A Companion Book for Children and Adults starts out with Open String Songs. I wanted to briefly give you some of the benefits of using Open String Songs with your students! 1) Open String Songs help students more quickly understand where notes are located on the fingerboard. Students of any […]
Playing vs. Practicing
I require my students to spend a minimum of 30min/day practicing. I write down what I want them to practice and show them how I want them to work on those goals. My students diligently go home and try to do their best to work on their assignments, but sometimes I will have a student […]
The Practicing Myth
What I call “the practicing myth” comes in various forms, but it always goes something like this: “My kids hate to practice, and I don’t want them to hate music, so taking music lessons must not be for them.” If parents took that perspective with other things it might sound something like this: “My […]
When and How to Teach Students to Tune
Tuning is the first thing we as musicians do before playing, so we should teach our students to do the same. Many teachers tune their students’ instrument for them, especially when teaching younger beginning students. While this may give more time in the lesson to teach other things, I think students are missing out on […]